Women's Institute

Each individual WI is a separate charitable organisation, run by and for its own members with a constitution agreed at national level but the possibility of local bye-laws. WIs are grouped into Federations, roughly corresponding to counties or islands, which each have a local office and one or more paid staff. The National Federation of Women's Institutes (NFWI) is the overall body of the WI in England, Wales, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man, with headquarters in London. There is also an office in Cardiff, NFWI-Wales, and a residential college in Oxfordshire, Denman College. WI Enterprises is the trading arm of the organisation and exists to raise funds and provide benefits for members. As of January 2019 there were approximately 220,000 members of 6,300 Women's Institutes in England, Wales and the islands,[6] linked through the Associated Country Women of the World to other WIs worldwide.

The WI is a women-only organisation, and has clarified in a 2017 statement Transgender WI membership that "Anyone who is living as a woman is welcome to join the WI and to participate in any WI activities in the same way as any other woman".[7] Colonel Richard Stapleton-Cotton and his dog Tinker are the only two males ever to be accepted as fully paid-up WI members: the Colonel, a "highly influential man locally", played a major part in setting up the first WI meeting in Anglesey in 1915.[8]

The WI campaigns on a wide range of issues affecting women, based on resolutions agreed at each year's national Annual Meeting. Its first resolution, passed in 1918, called for "sufficient supply of convenient and sanitary houses, being of vital importance to women in the country".[9] In 1943 they called for "Equal Pay for Equal Work" and continued to argue for this until the Equal Pay Act 1970 was passed.[10] 1954's resolution to "‘preserve the countryside against desecration by litter" lead to the formation of the Keep Britain Tidy group, which became a registered charity in 1960.[11] The WI discussed HIV/AIDS in 1986, agreeing "to inform the general public of the true facts concerning the disease AIDS" and subsequently working with the Terence Higgins Trust to produce a leaflet on "Women and AIDS".[12] The 2017 meeting passed a motion on microplastics pollution or "Plastic soup",[13] and in 2018 the WI agreed to "Make Time for Mental Health", "calling on members to take action to make it as acceptable to talk about mental health as it is about physical health".[14]

A 1933 WI produce stall in Cirencester

Every individual WI meets at least once a month and there is usually a speaker, demonstration or activity at every meeting for members to learn and develop a range of different skills.

Craft has always played an important role in the WI and thousands of members are involved in a range of different crafts.

The Women's Institute is often associated with food, cooking and healthy eating, and food and cooking form an important part of the WI's history.

1941: Members of Meifod WI busy "jamming" under the Ministry of Food fruit preserving scheme

Home-prepared foods continue to be a staple for the institute. Country Markets Limited is now independent of the WI but its markets were formerly known as "WI Markets" and it was previously part of the NFWI.

In 1948, NFWI bought Marcham Park in Berkshire, England and converted it into a short-stay residential adult education college, named Denman College[15] in honour of Lady Gertrude Denman. Now referred to as Denman, it has grown and developed over the years and is a well-appointed adult education centre attended by approximately 10,000 students each year. It is open to non-members as well as members. Courses offered at Denman include yoga, history of fashion and dance.[16]

The WI Cookery School at Denman offers a range of over 100 day schools, residential courses and family courses. The courses are tutored by specialists.

In July 2020, the NFWI announced that Denman College would be closing permanently due to longstanding financial difficulties exacerbated by the Covid-19 Pandemic.[17]

Women's Institute serving refreshments at a Saint George's Day event in Rochester, Kent

The NFWI produces a membership magazine, WI Life. Published eight times a year, WI Life is delivered (as of 2017) to more than 220,000 WI members.[18]

During the 1920s, many WIs started choirs and NFWI set up a music committee. W.H. Leslie, an amateur musician from Llansantffraid, Shropshire, acted as an advisor,[19] and held a one-day school for village conductors in London in early 1924. He asked his friend Sir Walford Davies to write an arrangement of Hubert Parry's setting of "Jerusalem", for WI choirs. This hymn, with its association with the fight for women's suffrage, was considered appropriate for the emerging WI movement which was encouraging women to take their part in public life, and to improve the conditions of rural life. Leslie suggested that Walford Davies' special arrangement for choir and string orchestra should be performed at the Annual General Meeting of NFWI held in the Queen's Hall, London in 1924. He conducted the singing, bringing a choir from local WIs with him to lead.

This was so successful that it continues to be sung at the opening of NFWI AGMs, and many WIs open meetings by singing "Jerusalem", although it has never been adopted as the WI's official anthem.

As part of the 95th anniversary celebration, a "modern" version of "Jerusalem" was recorded by The Harmonies, selected from entrants from the "WI Search for a Star" competition. It was released in 2010 as part of the album Voices of the W.I.

Queen Elizabeth II was a member from 1943 until her death in 2022, and was President of Sandringham WI. Her mother Queen Elizabeth was also a member, as are Sophie, Duchess of Edinburgh; Queen Camilla; and Anne, Princess Royal.[20] Queen Elizabeth II attended the January meeting at Sandringham each year and in January 2019 referred to "common ground" and "never losing sight of the bigger picture" in a speech which was widely reported and interpreted as touching on the Brexit debate.[21][22] The evening's guest speaker was Alexander Armstrong, host of TV show Pointless, and the Queen participated in a game of Pointless played at the meeting, on the winning side; Armstrong commented on her "deft, silky Pointless skills".[23][22]

The archives of the National Federation of Women's Institutes are held at The Women's Library at the Library of the London School of Economics.[24] The WI's archives are open to the public.